The Darlington Cross Country Festival celebrates its 10th year in 2013, and the field is bigger and faster than ever. Last year close to 40 high school teams forced the field to be split into two varsity races (1A-2A and 3A-6A), but this year the course was redesigned and the field limited to 30 high school teams in order to have one, large, super-competitive race.
The course has always been considered fast but fair, as the surface ranges between finely manicured athletic field grass and crushed gravel. It is mostly flat, but it does have one tough hill, named “Coyote Climb”, that runners have to ascend twice during the 5K race. The old course had been mildly confusing for spectators, but has been redesigned in 2013 to be two identical 2400 meter loops with a 200 meter finish area on a beautiful, flat grassy field. An awkward sidewalk crossing has been eliminated, and the only other artificial surface on the course, the concrete bridge crossing Silver Creek, had rubber mats added to it in 2012.
A course video can be watched here on the meet page and contains 3 different course maps for the 5000, 3200, and 1600 meter configurations. There is no entry fee and no parking fee, so anyone and everyone is welcome to watch all the action.
The girls’ varsity races will be the most competitive of the day, at least based on rankings. Ranked schools in the race include defending Darlington Festival Champion Etowah (#1 AAAAAA), Centennial (#7 AAAAAA), Rome (#10 AAAAA), Marist (#1 AAAA), River Ridge (#7 AAAA), Model (#6 AA), Coosa (#9 AA), Darlington (#1 A), Providence (#2 A), Walker (#8 A), and Mount Paran (#9). While unranked, Creekview, Kennesaw Mountain and Woodland should all challenge for top-10 spots. Awards are given to the top team in each classification, so 6 teams will walk away with championship trophies.
The boys’ varsity races will also be outstanding, adding Blessed Trinity (#4 AAA) to the mix of schools listed above. The other ranked teams are Etowah (#4 AAAAAA, also defending Darlington Festival Champion), Marist (#1 AAAA), Darlington (#1 A), North Cobb Christian (#8 A), and Fellowship Christian (#9 A). Other schools challenging for a top-10 finish and possibly trophies include Cherokee, Kennesaw Mountain, and North Cobb High School.
Individually the girls’ race will be an incredible duel between Marist’s Morgan Ilse (season PR of 18:14) and Tayler Tuttle of Providence (season PR or 18:24). In the boys’ race Alex Dunlap of Kennesaw Mountain (who won the 2012 Festival) and Matt Munns of Blessed Trinity will try to break up the impressive Marist trio of Michael Thurston, Daniel Navarro, and Frank Pittman.
After the five high school races there is an elementary 1600 and then four middle school 3200 meter races. The middle school races are often the best in the State. Last year the middle school boys race featured 9 boys running under 12 minutes and 7 girls running under 13. Defending boys’ champion Junior Hoyas are back, as are runner-up Holy’ Innocents. Holy Innocents’ also finished second in the 2012 girls’ race and will be challenged by many of the middle school programs from Cobb County.
Individually the middle school races are hard to predict as there are not many results to look at. In the boys’ race the favorite could be Darlington’s Clayburn Milford, who was 4th last year as the top 7th grader. Now in 8th grade he has already run low-11’s this season on challenging courses. On the girls’ side it seems impossible to predict, but the Junior Hoyas did have many 7th graders near the top in 2012.